Israel’s premier museum for Islamic art has scrapped the planned auction of scores of rare and precious objects after a public tour over the sale effort, which was expected to fetch millions of dollars from collectors rich private.
In an arrangement announced Wednesday with the museum, Sotheby’s and the Qatari Al Thani Collection Foundation, the Sotheby’s auction house returned items from the LA Mayer’s Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem now back to Israel immediately .
The Al Thani Collection, an art foundation affiliated with the ruling family in Qatar Gulf Arab state full of energy, will “generously support the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art” over a 10-year period, while one of the lending Islamic Art investment a long-term loan to the Al Thani Collection gallery at the Hotel de la Marine in Paris.
Nearly 270 items from the museum’s collection, including several central items and valuable vintage watches, were slated for auction at Sotheby’s in October. News of the sale drew widespread public criticism in Israel.
The Hermann de Stern Foundation, a Liechtenstein-based trust that funds most of the museum’s budget, said the sale was aimed at covering the institution’s management costs.
Israel and Qatar do not have a formal diplomatic relationship, but there are back channel ties to move Qatar of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to the Gaza Strip decided by Hamas. Sotheby’s said in a statement that it had facilitated the collaboration between the Islamic Art Museum and the Al Thani Collection.